Sales Tax Revs Stay Down

The decline in sales tax collections that began in February continued in November, Texas Controller Susan Combs said last week, as the $1.7 billion of revenue that came in for the month was down 14.4% from November 2008.

"Compared to a year ago, sales tax collections were down across all major sectors of the Texas economy, including oil and natural gas production, construction, manufacturing, and retail trade," Combs said.

November state sales tax collections and allocations to local governments are from sales that occurred in October.

Local governments received $417.1 million in December sales tax allocations, down 14.6% from last December. The final sales tax allocation of 2009 brings local sales tax revenue for the year to $5.6 billion, 5.1% less than in 2008.

The allocations included $279.6 million to cities, $24.6 million to counties, $96.5 million to local transit systems, and $16.3 million to 163 special-purpose taxing districts.

Sales tax revenue allocations for 2009 total $3.83 billion for cities, $1.28 billion for transit districts, $347 million for counties, and $228.3 million for special districts.

Houston received the largest allocation, $36.6 million for the month, bringing the yearly total to $489 million. The city's monthly allocation was almost 17% less than in November 2008, but the total so far in 2009 is down only 3% from last year.

Dallas received $14.5 million, which was 5.3% less than in November 2008. The city's sales tax revenues for the first 11 months of 2009 total $205.4 million, almost 10% less than the same period in 2008.

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